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Forum talk:Impossibly Hard
I played previous versions of FreeCiv prior to this latest version and quite enjoyed the "novice" level (I'm not great at the game and only ever played Civ and FreeCiv to have some fun building cities and stomping quite hard on other civilizations' militaries), but this latest version of the game I noticed that "novice" was impossible. The AI was very advanced, having achieved artillery before I even got gunpowder. By comparison, older versions I was always the most advanced civ and poured max resources into research, built as small an army as I could get away with until late in the game (spending my time building improvements in my cities and trading). So, I have uninstalled the current version of the game because it is just not fun anymore since I cannot even keep up with the AI. Exactly I downloaded v. 2.2 and just came here to see where I went wrong... well, apparently nowhere. V. 2.2 is simply buggy. To point out on 3 games test: a) AI players are mostly all "Worshipful" to each others and "Genocidal" to humans. b) Combat is simply stupid, not only it's lightning fast, not allowing you to check what has been done as also the screen runs away from the combat places. c) Combat calculator is malfuncioning. I got 10th of pikemen and chivallary wipped by... a single AI Chariot. On another even an AI ally legion just wiped 3 Musqueteers and 1 canon alone from other enemy AI player. Nothing of this makes the minimum sense! d) AI is developing lighting fast! On other game I wasn't even up to have Horseman when got visited by a steam boat from an AI player!!!!!! NON SENSE! e) Dealing with AI is impossible, it accepts nothing. On a try I gave absolutelly anything I could including cities and still got refused. Yet on another trial the AI would accept peace but if I add for me to give it a city to it the AI refuses... The system needs reviewing, but if I can add a line: Withdraw v. 2.2 from public releases and put it back to beta. Isn't mature and has loads of bugs which makes it unplayable. ---- You just need to understand how the game works. I have a game running in 2.2.0 right now with AI on Cheating difficulty and I'm beating them all. I also have allies who are worshipful to me, try not invading them or their friends (even walking in their territory) Realize that you probably won't be friendly with anyone whose borders are touching yours, especially when theres not much room to expand. Use the diplomacy intelligence menu and figure out who their friends are. The combat system works exactly how I expect it to, and it hasn't changed from 2.1. You need to remember that defense bonuses multiply one after another, so x2 for veteran level and x3 for mountains is x6 and that makes alot of difference, on top of firepower, hitpoints, health, happiness, etc. Try reading through the help files and the wiki and forums and figure out why the game is doing what its doing. Its always been a problem for freeciv that newbies don't understand (because there is alot to it) and say its too hard, while people who get it say its too easy... Not those, but I'm noticing some bugs; Diplomacy: AI has sort of "hard feelings", if you don't talk with them they will become harsh. Even if you never met them yet on the map. You'll notice it easily on island based maps, as you just get in touch later on the game all AI, specially those you hadn't meet yet, is "from uneasy to genocidal", unmet AI players should remain as "neutral", taken they never saw a single of your units. Even thus you may attack an ally of an unmet AI, but if I show you a screen "out of the blue" all unmet AI is foe and all close AI is from Worshiping to Admiring (many diplomacy ;) ) Combat: A strange behavior is going on. When you've more than one unit on a square and get attacked with your "primary defense" beaten the all other units on the very same square goes as... bonuses. _____________________________________________________ It's not a matter of knowing how to play the game like a whiz or not--the AI really -is- a monster. As mentioned above by the others, previous players (including myself) never had too much of a problem, especially on the novice setting. The changes (and yes, there had to be some pretty big changes to AI, despite the above poster just assuming "newbie-ness") have made it completely unplayable for me. I don't screw with other nations, I concentrate solely on spreading my empire as soon as I can, upgrade to Monarchy as soon as I have it available, start getting all cozy with learning my other techs... By the time I can get Leonardo's Workshop, not only does another nation already have it, but I'm usually being invaded by muskateers (or even in one case, Riflemen!). I'm no expert at the game, but I'm no dummy, either. I used to kick a fair amount of butt at the game, and now all of a sudden I suck to the point where it's no fun to even play? :( What gives? "Novice" is supposed to mean "Novice." It's supposed to mean, "hey, even if you ARE a moron, you could still have fun playing at this difficulty level." It is NOT supposed to mean, "unless you're some uber geek, you're getting your arse handed to you before the game can even get interesting." I'm playing Freeciv version 2.2.7 gui-gtk-2.0, so if anyone knows if someone fixed this since, do let me know. (2.2.7 is what's in the Ubuntu repos.) 08:40, April 7, 2012 (UTC)Sarteck Freeciv is making me angry I'm just trying this out for the first time. I have always been a huge fan of the Civ games, and had always heard good things about this one. There is a certain aspect of the other games that always sort of perplexed me, the ability of vastly inferior units to repeatedly repel attackers brandishing superior weapons. I've always been able to justify this in the other games. Sure, those musketeers repelled my tank division because they were in a heavily fortified city on hilly terrain; I'd always imagine that, you know, a group of musketeers must be made up of 30-40 individuals, and a tank group probably would only have 5-6 tanks. Those plucky musketeers, they pulled it together, fight like hellcats and somehow managed to outwit and outgun my tanks. Sure, I can believe that.... But here's the thing with freeciv, I have repeatedly had my ass handed to me by units that, for all intents and purposes, could in no way imaginable defend themselves with the skill and tenacity of those alamo musketeers. I'm talking about settlers, workers, and explorers. Not 10 minutes ago, I attempted to raid a city with 4 archers, 4 catapults, 4 legions, and 5 phalanxes. Inside the city was a single warrior and an explorer unit. The warrior took out half of my attacking force, which I'd be willing to let go, had the explorer not completed the job so perfectly. No suspension of disbelief can make me accept this outcome. That's like Lewis and Clark holding off a small Roman army. It's silly, imbalanced, and incredibly frustrating. What am I doing wrong? Also, having a phalanx taken out when I attack a group of settlers? The phalanx was the most successful combat formation for a thousand years. Sure, the settlers can defend themselves, I'd even accept a 50% unit health loss, but resisting the advance of a highly disciplined, professional military formation that manifests itself as an impenetrable wall of shields bristling with spikes? Come on, godammit. Free-Games or let's say 'non-profit' games tend to be professional-only It is a usual evolution of a game / a tool or any software which is "from developers for developers". They are not user friendly and not newbie-friendly. I feel this happens to freeciv. I just tried it again and for a Civ-Fan (Sid Meier's Civ 2 and onwards) it is very frustrating if playing freeciv. But I am not paying for this game, so I don't expect wonders :) Just an idea: why not introducing ads? like the 'stupid' android-games does, get some money and increase the 'user-friendliness' and "get even more happy users". So long, I switch back to the commercial one. Bye bye. R, the Civ-Fan